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Contrary to common understanding, an individual having onset of a specific heart disorder in hospital has a higher risk of death than an outpatient.

These startling findings were made by a team of experts at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hills. The team found that when in hospital people if experienced heart attacks due to onset of ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) they were odds of survival were smaller than those if they arrived with the same condition to the hospital, The Times of India reported. Researchers calculated that outpatients who presented with STEMI had a survival chance of 33.6 percent which reduces to 9.2 percent for inpatients if STEMI happens.

Based on data obtained from California State Inpatient Database for the time between 2008 and 2011, researchers pointed out other differences between inpatient and outpatient STEMI onsets. The study showed that inpatients were less likely to be discharged and would have to stay longer, 13 days compared to five days average that outpatients spent. Inpatient onset of STEMI also involved a higher cost averaged at $ $245,000, which is nearly twice the bill that outpatient onset was associated with.

"The question of how to improve outcomes and define optimum treatment in hospitalized patients who experience a STEMI is an area that merits more attention and concern. Although there have been improvements in treatment times and clinical outcomes in outpatients who have onset of STEMI, few initiatives have focused on optimizing care of hospitalized patients with onset of STEMI after admission," a press release quoted the team.

The comparative study also pointed that inpatient onsets were likely to happen in older people even as the data showed that they were more likely to be women.

The findings of the study appear in the next issue of American Journal of Medical Association.